Frank London & The Elders - Spirit Stronger Than Blood (2024) [Official Digital Download 24/48]

Spirit Stronger Than Blood pays homage to some of the recordings that shaped my musical-spiritual aesthetic: Charles Mingus’s Changes 1&2, Booker Little’s Strength and Sanity, Pharaoh Sanders’s Peace and Love, Clifford Thornton’s Gardens of Harlem, Alice Coltrane’s Ptah, The El Daoud. Each of these artists, as different as they are from each other, shared a commonality of intention that set me on my life and career path. Their music is spiritual, political, romantic, at turns angry and peaceful, and inspires us to transcend and challenge the inequities of quotidian existence in order to make the world a better place, to heal the broken world (tikkun olam).

Some of the songs are inspired by Jewish texts—“Let There Be Peace” from the prayer Oseh Shalom, asking the Almighty to bring us peace; “Abundant Love” is in the Jewish prayer mode, Ahava Raba, acknowledging God’s infinite love for all of us. “Poem for a Blue Voice” is a poem by davida singer, whose partner Isabel Deconinck never let her blood cancer quash her indominable spirit. “Resilience and Resistance” are attributes that we need to get through the trials, tribulations, and indignities life can throw at us. Healing of course from disease, but also from trauma, from blind obeisance to dogma.

Spirit Stronger Than Blood. I was recently diagnosed with myelofibrosis, an extremely rare and fatal blood cancer, and dedicate this recording to my dear friends and colleagues who have passed away from blood diseases & other cancers—Lester Bowie, Thomas Chapin, Adrienne Cooper, Isabelle Deconinck, Jewlia Eisenberg, Ron Miles, and my namesake, Frank London Brown. Check out all of their work and be inspired.

Spirit Stronger Than Blood is my celebration of life, making music with my friends and chosen family.—Frank London, April 2024

Frank London - trumpet
Marilyn Lerner - piano
Hilliard Greene - bass
Newman Taylor Baker - drums
Greg Wall - sax (tracks 2, 3 & 4)

"In addition to being the co-founder of The Klezmatics and the leader of Glass House Orchestra and Klezmer Brass Allstars, trumpeter and composer Frank London has worked with a wide range of artists in different musical contexts such as John Zorn, Lester Bowie, Pink Floyd, Iggy Pop, LL Cool J, and David Byrne. Recently diagnosed with myelofibrosis, an extremely rare blood cancer, London decided to release Spirit Stronger Than Blood as a celebration of life.

Encompassing six originals, the program kicks off with “Let There Be Peace”, an eternal prayer whose modal jazz appeal evokes the elated spirit and pure fire of Pharaoh Sanders. London pairs beautifully with saxophonist Greg Wall in the frontline, well supported by the rhythm section of pianist Marilyn Lerner, bassist Hilliard Greene, and Matthew Shipp Trio’s drummer Newman Taylor Baker.

The swinging modalism of “Resilience”, which London dedicates to the late trumpeter Lester Bowie, serves the burning saxophone outpours of Wall, who, very much in the foreground here, works on top of Lerner’s unceasing harmonies. The title track, “Spirit Stronger Than Blood”, is heartbreakingly introduced by piano and trumpet in a meditative rubato passage that soon gives way to a 3/4 rhythmic flux delicately underpinned by bass and drums. Imbued with an encouraging, positive energy, this number ends with emotive trumpet wails conveying both beauty and sorrow with dramatic flair.

“Poem for a Blue Voice” is soulful ballad sweetness with its rich theme expressed in unison, while the groovy “Abundant Love”, dedicated to London’s family - his artist wife Tine Kindermnann and their two children - carries a gorgeous Eastern-tinge throughout that certainly feels very liberating for the soloists. The album concludes with “Resistance/Healing”, another modal tour-de-force delivered at 3/4 tempo that brings Alice Coltrane’s spiritual excursions to mind. It’s dedicated to trumpeter Ron Miles.

This is a solid effort by London, who shows no signs of weakness in his music but rather an optimism and a magnetic energy that are laudable. Wishing him a quick recovery and a triumphant return to the jazz world in which he’s passionately immersed."

Tracklist:
01 - Let There Be Peace
02 - Resilience
03 - Spirit Stronger Than Blood
04 - Poem for a Blue Voice
05 - Abundant Love
06 - Resistance/Healing


Thanks to the Original customer!